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Khashoggi: Apple Watch recordings more likely 'a cover story', expert claims

Claims that missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi recorded audio of his own torture and murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on his Apple Watch are being questioned by cyber security experts.

Experts now suspect that the Apple Watch recordings may have been fabricated by Turkish authorities to conceal covert surveillance of the Saudi consulate, reports suggest.

Unverified claims by the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah suggested that the country's authorities had audio from inside of the embassy recorded by Mr Khashoggi's Apple Watch .

They were published shortly after a report in the Washington Post - for whom Mr Khashoggi worked - cited US government officials who believed that audio recordings proved he had been murdered while visiting the Saudi embassy.

The alternative source for the audio recording would have been surveillance devices which Turkish authorities had placed within the Saudi embassy - at the risk of upsetting the country, with whom it maintains a delicate relationship.

Dr Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University in the US - a cyber security expert who has testified before US Congress on intelligence operations - tweeted to express his suspicion of the claims.

"[I'm] surprised by how many serious observers are running with the Khashoggi-used-his-Apple-Watch-story," wrote Professor Rid.

"As long as there is no good evidence, the more plausible scenario is a shrewd cover story to protect Turkish sources & methods - a cover story that would predictably go viral."

In response, Matt Tait, a cyber security specialist formerly at GCHQ and Google who writes under the handle "Pwnallthethings", posited a timeline of events in which the Apple Watch story was published by the pro-government paper in Turkey.

Mr Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul over a week ago after apparently giving his fiancee his iPhone, which the watch was synced with.

Turkish officials have said they believe a 15-member Saudi "assassination squad" killed Mr Khashoggi there.

President Trump warned the US would inflict "severe punishment" if Saudi Arabia was behind his disappearance.

He told CBS: "We're going to get to the bottom of it."